1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to cameras having lens protection covers ahead of the objective lenses thereof when not shooting, and more particularly to cameras with the lens protection cover opening and closing through an actuator.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
In the past, cameras have been provided with lens protection caps attachable to and detachable from the lens housing.
The objective lens must be protected from the adherence of dust, stains or the like which will result in a reduction of the imaging performance, and from damage by hard objects directly hitting the lens at all times except when shooting, that is, at times when the camera is being carried or stored.
Such typical lens protection caps have, however, two drawbacks as follows: The first one is that when shooting, the detached protection cap must be kept either in a pocket of the photographer's garment, or on a nearby shelf, for example, so that the reattachment of the lens protection cap will be often overlooked, and in the latter case it will often be missed.
The second drawback which is encountered with cameras, other than the type in which an object to be photographed is viewed through the objective lens as in the single lens reflex camera, is that the photographer will often forget to take off the lens protection cap before shooting. Particularly with recently developed automatic exposure cameras and automatic focus cameras, the photographer accustoms himself to not manually setting the diaphragm and focus, and therefore forgets the otherwise indispensable diaphragm presetting ring and distance adjusting ring. Accordingly, he is unaware of the lens protection cap still on the front of the lens mounting.
To elimimate these two drawbacks, there has been proposed a camera in which the releasably attached lens protection cap covers so widely that is also extends over the finder window or the release button. This type cap, however, because of its increased size and complexity, intensifies the first drawback so that the availability of places for accomodation at the time of shooting is largely reduced, and therefore the manageability of the camera is also more troublesome.
To solve such problems, an attempt has been made to construct a camera with a slidingly movable lens protection member supported on the front panel of the camera housing to shut and open the lens mounting portion as, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,171,894 and 4,189,222. Such a lens protection member though able to solve the above problems to some extent, has the following alternative drawbacks.
Such a lens protection member is required to cover not only the front panel of the camera housing, but also the top and bottom panels thereof, thus contributing to increased camera bulk and size. Another drawback is increased production cost. The protection member must also be opened and closed directly by hand. An additional problem is that quick and easy opening and closing is difficult.